Dear Blizzard, please make Hearthstone Lite.
I could really just leave the article at that. Send a tweet and call it a day, but allow me to provide a little more context.
Recently, I saw Hearthstone being promoted in the Play Store because of the upcoming Boomsday event. Having heard a lot about the game without ever picking it up, I decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed. Hearthstone is one of the best, most polished, and straight up fun games you can play anywhere, certainly on your phone. Moreover, I get the impression that Blizzard didn't want to compromise the experience in any way. The sounds, the visuals, and the voice acting are all a cut above pretty much anything else on the store, and the game is jam packed with a steady stream of new content. However, for someone in my context, these may not be the right things to prioritize.
I live in a rural area, and I have a $200 phone with mid-range specs. This means that when there's new stuff, Hearthstone takes forever to open and forever to update. Even accounting for Blizzard’s clever way of downloading stuff in the background allowing you to at some points play the game or switch apps, the long wait times can be an impediment to a natural picking up of the game. The wonder of having the game with me at all times is a little diminished when I'm confronted with a download screen that can go on for more than 10 minutes. I am a special case because my internet is slow, and please note that nothing else about the game is sluggish in its performance in any way. But, the problem of just getting into the game in the first place is hard to ignore.
I'm not sure what it would require to make a version of Hearthstone that loaded up right away. It may not be possible. But, for what it's worth this particularly enthusiastic player would love a version of the game that prioritized ease of use over the polish that I appreciate but can live without.
Hearthstone is available on the Googoo Store and Apple's. But you probably already knew that.
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